Ballot Issue: Referendum C

An initiative that would have taken back a budget referendum passed last year will not be making the ballot according to the Denver Post.

Initiative 88, which would have modified “the limit on state fiscal year spending approved by passage of Referendum C at the November 2005 election” is not going to be up for a vote because supporters said they lacked the funds to campaign.From the article:

A ballot initiative that was expected to split the Republican Party will not be on November’s ballot because the proponents lack the money to campaign for it, a leading supporter said Monday.

Jon Caldara, president of the Independence Institute, said he collected signatures for a measure that would have refunded to taxpayers some of the estimated $4.9 billion voters allowed the state to keep last year when they approved Referendum C.

“I believe I have enough (signatures) to get it on the ballot,” Caldara said, “but after 3 months of pretty hardcore fundraising I don’t have the money to get it over the top.”

Democrats responded to the news in a press release, pointing out gubernatorial candidate Bob Beauprez’s support for the initiative.

“Bob Beauprez bragged about being the first in line to support Ballot Initiative 88. Today we see that Ballot Initiative 88 is an embarrassing failure that was shunned by community leaders and business interests,” said Democratic Party Chair Pat Waak in the statement. “Beauprez should be ashamed of himself for supporting something so universally unpopular and flawed.”

Erin Rosa was born in Spain and raised in Colorado Springs. She is a freelance writer currently living in Denver. Rosa's work has been featured in a variety of news outlets including the Huffington Post, Democracy Now!, and the Rocky Mountain Chronicle, an alternative-weekly in Northern Colorado where she worked as a columnist covering the state legislature. Rosa has received awards from the Society of Professional Journalists for her reporting on lobbying and woman's health issues. She was also tapped with a rare honorable mention award by the Newspaper Guild-CWA's David S. Barr Award in 2008--only the second such honor conferred in its nine-year history--for her investigative series covering the federal government's Supermax prison in the state. Rosa covers the labor community, corrections, immigration and government transparency matters. She can be reached at erosa@www.coloradoindependent.com.

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